It’s an acclaimed comic, devoid of superheroes but with a strong woman and a timely vendetta against police corruption at its core. Now ‘Scarlet’ may be heading to the screen…
Ever since it debuted, we’ve championed Brian Michael Bendis-scripted comic Scarlet – not that the title, published as part of Marvel‘s Icon‘ imprint, needed our support.
Far from the superhero tales he’s known for, working on mainstream Marvel fare like Ultimate Spider-man and the likes of Alias / Jessica Jones and Powers, it’s the more urban story of a disillusioned girl, Scarlet Rhue, who witnesses police corruption and begins to lead a crusade against the force. It’s an initiative that quickly takes on a life of its own and becomes a dangerous, volatile movement. Told in an otherwise realistic style by acclaimed artist Alex Maleev, the character of Scarlet frequently turns from the page and addresses the reader, so while she’s clearly the heroine of the piece, it’s not always easy to tell if she’s an unreliable narrator. It has, despite irregular scheduling, become a deserved cult success.
We’ve also said from the start that the comic is screaming out for an adaptation for the screen and industry site Deadline today notes that Bendis, while speaking at the ATX Television Festival, has now confirmed there are indeed early plans to being Scarlet’s story to television. While it initially appeared that it would be a project at HBO, it now appears that it is Cinemax (home of shows such as Banshee and Outcast) is the venue.
Bendis acknowledged that the confrontational and controversial subject of police-corruption, cop-killing and vigilantes might have been a difficult ‘sell’ until recently but said, during the panel, that: “Scarlet is a list of things you can’t get made. Here’s a female lead who’s killing cops because her world is broken. When it was sold it was sold to people who were actively looking for that, so that put us in a good place. So stay tuned.”
